Evaluating Websites and Citing Your Sources

Is everything on the Internet true?

Can You Use It? Once you find a site that has information you are looking for, you need to determine if the site is good to use or not. This is called evaluating a website.

A wise man was quoted as saying… (BTW…this quote was on the Internet.)

Evaluating Websites There are several things to look at on a website to determine if it is a good site to use for school work. Author-Who’s in Charge? Audience-Who’s it Made for? Content-What’s it About? Currency-Is it Up to Date?

Author-Who’s in Charge? Is it easy to find out who made the website or webpage? Can you contact the author? Is the person or company who made the website or webpage an expert on the subject? What is the domain? –Websites that are a.org,.edu, or.gov are likely to be more credible than a.com or.net site

Audience-Who’s it Made for? Does it look interesting? Is the text easy to read? Do the pictures have clear labels? Do the pictures help you understand the words? Do the colors and patterns make it easy to read? Can you understand the information on the site? Is it easy to move around the site? –This is called navigating the site.

Content-What is it About? Does the webpage or website have spelling or grammatical errors? Is there useful information for students? Is the site based on fact? Is the site trying to persuade you to think or believe a certain way? Does the webpage or website contain advertising? Can you find what you need from the home page? Do the webpages load quickly?

Currency-Is it Up to Date? Is the information current? Do you know where the website’s author got his/her information? Is there a bibliography or list of sources included? When was the website or webpage last updated? Do all of the links work?

Let’s Try It Let’s look at a couple of websites and evaluate them using the four things we talked about. You can refer to your handout for help. Save the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie All About Explorers

Using Reliable Sources

Have you ever seen this symbol before?

You can see the © symbol on things you find in your classroom, in your home, at the store, or just about anywhere! © © © © ©

Do you know what this symbol means?

© means Copyright. Copyright is a law that protects things people make by making it against the law for anyone else to copy that work or use it on their own without permission of the author.

Understanding Copyright protects things people make or ideas people come up with such as: words photographs paintings songs on the radio designs on clothing symbols of companies

What’s the difference between © and ™ and ® ? A © protects things that are written down or recorded with sound and/or video. It has to do with art and books. A ™ has to do with a word, a name, a symbol or an invention that helps provide a good or a service. It is used so that others won’t confuse a word, name, symbol or device with words, names, symbols or devices that are almost exactly the same. A ® is a registered trademark that cannot be copied. A ® is good for 10 years.

What if I need to use something that has a © for school? You can use small amounts of text (words) and individual images (pictures) for your schoolwork, as long as you tell where you got them from.

How can I use ©ed information correctly? If you want to use some information that you find for school work, you should first read the information and then retell the information in your own way. Think of it like telling a friend about something you saw on tv or read in a book. You wouldn’t tell them word for word everything you saw or read. You would give them a summary of what you saw and read.

What if I find some information that is just perfect the way it is? Can I copy it exactly as I see it or do I have to put it in my own words? If you find some information that you want to use word for word you can quote the author by putting quotation marks around what you are using as long as you are using only a small portion, not the entire piece of information. “”

How would that look? Ferb, I know what we're going to do today! (Phineas of Phineas and Ferb) First copy what you want to say.Next, put quotation marks around it. Finally give credit to the author who said it by putting their name after the quote. “ ”

What if I want to use a © ed picture for schoolwork? If you make a copy or print a copy of a picture from the Internet or a book, you should write somewhere near or on the picture where you got the picture. Picture from Microsoft Clip Art Gallery Picture from

What happens if I don’t tell where I got my information? Copying someone else’s creative work for schoolwork without telling where you got it from is considered plagiarism. It’s okay to use information from books and websites as long as you give credit to the person who wrote the information you use.

What is plagiarism? Plagiarism is a form of cheating similar to copying answers on a test. Just like it is wrong to copy someone’s answers on a test, it’s just as wrong to take credit for someone else’s ideas at school, whether in words, or a picture, and no matter whether you copy the ideas exactly or change them a little.

How to Avoid Plagiarism All you have to do is credit your sources. That means telling where you got the facts and ideas you use in a project or report. This is called citing your sources. For most school assignments, you will create a bibliography for the end of your project. This is simply a list of the sources you used and information about those sources that you will give to your teacher.

Pictures used with permission by the author.

Here’s how to make a bibliography. For books: Baker, Lucy, The Secret Life of Bears, New York, Scholastic, Inc., 1990 For encyclopedias: “Bears,” The World Book Encyclopedia, 1982, vol. 2, pages For websites: “Brown Bears”

What are the © rules for using something besides for school? The rules are different if you are not using the information for school. You can’t copy whatever you want to use however you want whenever you want. If you want to use something someone else has made and it’s not for schoolwork, especially if you want to use it in something you sell, you must get the author’s permission to do so.

What does all this mean? If you use somebody else’s work, whether it is for school or for fun, you should ALWAYS give the author credit for making it by telling who the author is and where you found it. Wouldn’t you want others to do the same for you?

Are there any questions?

The information contained in this PowerPoint was adapted from the CyberSmart website. The clipart in this PowerPoint comes from Microsoft Clipart Gallery. References

“Copyright Kids” 1/12/09http:// “Cyberethics for Kids” 1/12/09http:// “CyberSmart” 1/12/09http:// “Copyright with Cyberbee” 1/12/09http://

“Science Fair Central” education.com/sciencefaircentral/, 1/12/09http://school.discovery education.com/sciencefaircentral/ “Website Evaluation” 1/12/09http:// References